Pioli takes positives from Lazio point

Pioli takes positives from Lazio point

Stefano Pioli expressed his satisfaction as Fiorentina secured a
last-gasp 1-1 draw against Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico after Khouma
Babacar converted a penalty in the second minute of added time.

"There
were lots of positive things in the performance today. We can take them
and kick on with confidence and belief," said the Fiorentina coach,
speaking in his post-match press conference.

Pioli insisted that the result can be a turning point for his team after a string of disappointing showings.

"On
a mental level it can definitely [give us a boost]," he said. "It
wasn’t easy tonight, but up until they scored Lazio hadn’t really caused
us problems – we gave them away a cheap free-kick too. It’s not easy
when you’re the team trying to take the game to them and you go behind
from their first attack. We did very well – we kept a clear head and
continued playing our game. We kept throwing ourselves into the physical
battles with players that are a lot stronger than us.

"We
showed good intensity and kept the tempo high, so mentally I think we’ve
taken a step forward. We need to build on this in our next game. We’re
happy with the performance and the result against a great side, but we
want to get back to winning ways."

Pioli admitted that his team are the only ones that can ensure Fiorentina begin to put a consistent run of results together.

"It’s
up to us," he said. "Despite the fact that the squad has undergone big
changes and we have a really young group here, I think we have real
quality and a distinctive identity. I’ve said I want to look to the
future so I’m not a big fan of talking about past games, but
unfortunately in the defeats to Crotone and Roma individual mistakes put
us back in terms of our growth as a team and cost us the results. That
said, even in those games, and especially against Roma, we matched
strong opposition with our performances. It shows that we need to look
beyond individual mistakes and recognise the work that’s being done.

"Our
aim this year is to create a foundation – I think that’s clear – but I
think we have what it takes to enjoy some success. Having said that, we
need to achieve more consistency in our results. It looked like we’d got
that a month ago, but sadly we lost it and that was our fault alone."